Primary Tools & Materials:needle & thread, specialty paper

Today's combination is embroidery and specialty paper. I've already done one study using iron-on transfer paper as the star, but today I wanted to use it as a subtle guide that would easily disappear when I needed it to. I also wanted to try a new embroidery stitch to enhance this letterform. The typeface I used to make my iron-on guide is AW Conqueror Carved Four - one isolated layer of the typeface I used on Day 25. This time, instead of layering several parts of the letter, I focused on just the shadow, which makes the letterform legible in the negative space. To stress the direction and curve of the shapes in the letter's shadow, I chose an embroidery stitch that would highlight changes in direction.

After ironing on my print, I added the first part of the embroidery stitch; the parallel stitches that the the loopy stitches weave through. Then I added the second color, snaking it through the first stitch, and taking care to change the angle of the stitch when it turned corners around the edge of the letter.

This letter has a lot of dimensionality, texture and shadows. The quality of the stitching is such that the form seems to sit on top of the fabric, rather than sewn into it. It feels flexible, as though it could be stretched and repositioned to form a different letter.